King Charles and Queen Camilla will meet Pope Leo XIV as part of a two-day state visit to the Vatican in October.

A previous official trip to the Vatican was postponed in April 2025 because of the poor health of the pontiff’s predecessor, Pope Francis.

The King is the UK head of state, but his powers are largely symbolic and ceremonial. He remains politically neutral.

He receives daily dispatches from the government in a red leather box, including briefings ahead of important meetings, or documents needing his signature.

The prime minister normally meets the King on a Wednesday at Buckingham Palace.

These meetings are completely private, and no official records are kept of what is said.

The King has a number of official parliamentary roles:

• Appointing a government – the leader of the party that wins a general election is usually called to Buckingham Palace and invited to form a government. The King also formally dissolves Parliament before a general election
• State Opening and the King’s Speech – the King sets out the government’s plans in a speech delivered from the throne in the House of Lords
• Royal Assent – when a piece of legislation is passed through Parliament, it must be formally approved by the King in order to become law. Royal Assent was last refused in 1708

He leads the annual Remembrance event in November at the Cenotaph in London.

The King is head of the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent countries with a population of 2.7 billion people.

He serves as head of state for 14 of these, known as the Commonwealth realms, including Australia, Canada, Jamaica and New Zealand. He holds the same position for the Crown dependencies – the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

As well as hosting visiting heads of state such as US President Donald Trump, the King regularly meets foreign ambassadors and high commissioners, and carries out foreign visits.

The King confers official honours on people from all walks of life, in recognition of their merit, service or bravery. Most honours are awarded at new year and on the monarch’s official birthday, in June.

Charles is patron to a number of organisations, including the RNLI, the Samaritans, RAF Museum, the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, the Penny Brohn cancer charity and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society, Orchestra and Choir.

Queen Camilla also holds a number of patronages, including the Royal Literary Fund, the Royal Academy of Dance, the Royal Voluntary Service and the Army Benevolent Fund, and undertakes her own public engagements.

• Prince William is the elder son of King Charles and his first wife, the late Princess Diana. After the death of Queen Elizabeth II, he became the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall while retaining his previous Duke of Cambridge title. He is married to Catherine, Princess of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. They have three children: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis
• The Princess Royal (Princess Anne) was the Queen’s second child and only daughter. She is married to Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence and has two children with her first husband, Captain Mark Phillips: Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall
• The Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Edward) was the Queen’s youngest child. He is married to the Duchess of Edinburgh (Sophie Rhys-Jones). They have two children: Lady Louise and James, Earl of Wessex
• The Duke of York (Prince Andrew) was the Queen’s second son. He has two daughters with his former wife, the Duchess of York (Sarah Ferguson): Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. Prince Andrew stepped down as a “working royal” in 2019 after a controversial BBC Newsnight interview about allegations that he had sexually assaulted Virginia Giuffre. In February 2022, he paid an undisclosed sum to settle the civil sexual assault case which Ms Guiffre brought against him in the US
• The Duke of Sussex (Prince Harry) is William’s younger brother. He is married to the Duchess of Sussex (Meghan Markle). They have two children: Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. In 2020, they announced they were stepping back as senior royals and moved to California

The order of succession sets out which member of the Royal Family takes over as monarch when the existing one dies or abdicates.

First in line – the heir to the throne – is the monarch’s eldest child. Sons no longer take precedence over their older sisters.

King Charles’s heir is his elder son William, the Prince of Wales.

William’s eldest child Prince George is second-in-line to the throne, and his daughter Princess Charlotte is third. Her younger brother Prince Louis is fourth and Prince Harry is fifth.

The Royal Family receives an annual payment from the Treasury, known as the Sovereign Grant, which is used to pay for official expenses, such as the upkeep of properties and staff costs.

The amount of public funding is calculated as a proportion of the profits of the Crown Estate, a £15bn property business which is independently run.

When it was introduced in 2012, the Sovereign Grant was initially set at 15% of Crown Estate profits, but in 2016 this was increased to 25% to cover the cost of a 10-year £369m programme to modernise Buckingham Palace.

The percentage has since reduced to 12% but an increase in Crown Estate profits from assets including offshore wind farms means the cash value of the grant has grown.

In 2012, the Sovereign Grant was worth £31m a year. By 2021-22, this had increased to £86.3m, and it remained at this level until 2024-2025.

But it rose to £132m in 2025-26 – even under the reduced formula.

Buckingham Palace said the big increase was due to the element of the grant that pays for the building works, rather than the “core” grant which covers other running costs.

It told the BBC that “it has always been anticipated that the level of the Sovereign Grant will drop once the project is completed” in 2026-27.

In July 2024, the National Audit Office said the programme had been well-run and delivers “good value for money”.

The King also receives money from a private estate called the Duchy of Lancaster, which is passed down from monarch to monarch. It covers more than 18,000 hectares of land, including property in central London.

Worth £679m, it generated a surplus of £24.4m in the year to 31 March 2025.

The Duke of Cornwall (currently William, Prince of Wales) benefits from the Duchy of Cornwall, which mainly owns land in the south-west of England.

Worth £1.1bn, it generated a net surplus of £24.4m in the year to 31 March 2025.

The King and William receive the profits from the duchies personally, and can spend the money as they wish. Both voluntarily pay income tax on the proceeds.

Some Royal Family members have private art, jewellery and stamp collections which they can sell or use to generate income as they wish.

Buckingham Palace, currently undergoing renovations, is the official headquarters of the monarchy. But the King and Queen live in a number of residences, including Clarence House in London and Highgrove in Gloucestershire.

A 2023 YouGov opinion poll of more than 2,000 adults in Britain ahead of the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s death suggested a sharp generational divide.

Overall, 62% wanted to keep the monarchy, with 26% backing an elected head of state – up from 17% a decade earlier.

But while 80% of the over-65s supported the monarchy, only 37% of 18-to-24-year-olds agreed.

There was also less support for the royals in Scotland or Wales than in England.